British television network ‘Channel 4’ on Tuesday night (Sept. 05) aired its new controversial documentary containing startling accusations pertaining to the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings that targeted several Catholic churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka, killing more than 260 people and leaving hundreds of others wounded.
The new ‘Dispatches’ investigation titled ‘Sri Lanka’s Easter Bombings’ is a nearly 50-minute-long video with serious yet straightforward allegations about the attacks based on testimonies of high-placed whistleblowers who alleged that governmental officials were complicit.
The main whistleblower Hanzeer Azad Maulana was a spokesman for LTTE’s breakaway group Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pullikal (TMVP) led by current State Minister of Rural Road Development Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan.
According to the documentary, Maulana, who has sought asylum in Switzerland after facing fraud charges here, has presented his testimony to the UN Human Rights Council and has also been interviewed by European intelligence agencies.
Maulana told Channel 4 that he witnessed a meeting between the suicide bombers and a top Sri Lankan intelligence officer prior to the Easter Sunday attacks.
Claiming that he had, on the directives of Pillayan, arranged the said meeting between then-army intelligence chief Major General Suresh Sallay and the National Thowheed Jamaath (NTJ) members including its leader Zahran Hashim, Maulana said the plot to create insecurity in the country to pave way for former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa to win the presidential election later in 2019 was hatched over 2-3 years.
According to Maulana, the meeting was held in Puttalam in January 2018.
Channel 4 says Sallay has denied the accusations, telling the ‘Dispatches’ that he was in Malaysia at the time the supposed meeting took place. He has further said that he was attending training in India when the Easter Sunday attacks happened.
The documentary, which recaps the country’s political situation, also provides a lengthy commentary on former presidents Mahinda Rajapaksa and Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s time in power and their attempts to return to power after election defeats.
Recalling the 2009 disappearance of journalist Lasantha Wickrematunga who was a prominent critic of the then-government, the ‘Dispatches’ investigation video claims that Mahinda Rajapaksa’s administration had formed a clandestine death squad called the ‘Tripoli Platoon’ with the support of Pillayan’s group to crack down on anti-government media persons.
It interviews former senior CID officer Nishantha Silva who was investigating the disappearance of Wickrematunga. He claims that he found phone record evidence putting ‘Tripoli Platoon’ members at the scene and that Gotabaya Rajapaksa had ‘direct monitoring’ of this death squad.
The documentary also presents testimonies from His Eminence Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, journalist Frederica Jansz who was a witness in the ‘White Flag’ case, the brother of journalist Lasantha Wickrematunga, former commissioner of Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) Ambika Satkunanathan and former diplomat Sarath Kongahage.
